The [State] Duma Committee on CIS Affairs and Relations with Compatriots will hold an extraordinary meeting to prepare a statement on the situation in Ukraine, the committee`s chairman, Andrey Kokoshin, has told journalists, according to RIA Novosti report, translated by the BBC Monitoring Service.
In the draft statement the deputies say that a political crisis is still continuing in Ukraine, and "is obviously deepening in connection with the actions of the republic`s president, who decided to dismiss two Constitutional Court judges".
"When analysing the legality of this decision, we came to the conclusion that this decision by the president violates Ukrainian law, both its form and its procedure," Kokoshin said.
He also said that "Viktor Yushchenko is moving further and further outside the bounds of law and is making it impossible for the Constitutional Court to function. The Constitutional Court should be protected from all kinds of political influence".
According to Kokoshin, both the Constitutional Court and the Ukrainian parliament are currently forced to work under heavy political pressure. Kokoshin said that the ongoing political crisis may turn into a social and economic crisis, which causes concern to Russia both in the humanitarian sphere, and in the sphere of economic cooperation between the two countries.
Moreover, Russia is worried about how "the political crisis will affect Ukraine as a transit country for hydrocarbons from Russia to Europe". He said that European politicians are expressing similar concerns.
Kokoshin underlined that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe [PACE] had expressed its position, according to which the Constitutional Court should have the final word in solving the conflict between the president and parliament. "But in these conditions it will be hard for the Constitutional Court to speak its mind," he said.
Kokoshin said that "the president has not made one single step towards a compromise during this whole time, even though he has spoken about it many times and in a loud voice".
He also said that the president had violated Ukrainian law more than once and is drawing the country towards an abyss of instability.
Kokoshin believes that Western politicians should also take this situation very seriously, and not feed any illusions regarding loud statements by the "Orange group" about adherence to the law and constitution.
"All their loud statements turn out to be a simple bluff," he said. Kokoshin also said that in their struggle for power the Orange side is disregarding the requirements of both their own country`s laws and global practice.
"The fate of the nation, and not personal considerations of the moment, such as political power or economic motives, should have primacy," he said.
Kokoshin said that the statement would be sent to Ukraine, PACE, the national parliaments of European countries, the CIS parliamentary assembly, the parliamentary assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Eurasian Economic Cooperation Organization and also to the parliaments of a number of Asian countries, including China and India.
This news was monitored by the Action Ukraine Monitoring Service for the Action Ukraine Report (AUR), Morgan Williams, SigmaBleyzer, Editor.
